Firms following Trump’s ‘Americans first,’ hiring more U.S. workers at higher wages than foreign replacements

Aug 12, 2017

(National Sentinel)Â Labor:Â President Donald J. Trump ran and won on a platform of “America and Americans First,” and the sentiment appears to be catching on in the U.S. corporate world.

Firms are now beginning to hire more American workers — at higher wages — than they are foreign-born replacements,Â The Wall Street Journal has noted.

ReportsÂ Breitbart News, “theÂ pressure is highlighted by seasonal employers in Massachusetts who were forced to hire Americans when Trumpâ€™s populist coalition stymied their lobbying efforts to expand the use of H-2B foreign contract workers.”

The WSJ notes further:

â€œI have more Americans working than Iâ€™ve ever had,â€ says Josh Aronie, executive chef at the Home Port Restaurant in the Vineyard fishing village of Menemsha. He also reports his restaurant has been short of staff and many of the workers he does have donâ€™t know the basics of cooking or even how to read the ordersâ€¦

Nationwide data on the leisure and hospitality sector also shows a tightening labor market. In June, average hourly earnings in the sector increased 4% from a year earlier, according to government data analyzed by Moodyâ€™s Analytics â€¦

At the Home Port Restaurant in Menemsha, Mr. Aronie recalls meeting with his small staff in a panic this June just a few days before the scheduled opening. He had applied for 18 H-2B visa workers and received none.Â Because of the staffing crunch, the restaurant initially was open just five nights a week, and didnâ€™t open for lunch until late July. Mr. Aronie jokes about the qualification he requires for hiring: â€œAre you breathing? Excellent.â€ He has paid a premium to hire three people via a Boston-based temp agency.

Many American companies hire foreign workers under the H-2B program because the deck is stacked against Americans: H-2B workers must remain with the company that hired them for the entire season, and atÂ government-set wages. So obviously, if this did not make economic sense for American firms, they wouldn’t be so eager to take part in the program and would not be so keen to see it continued and expanded.

But the program goes against Trump’s campaign pledges and his “America first” sensibilities.

Still, American workers have some stepping up to do as well, as noted by Breitbart:

Employers also prefer foreign workers because the current pool of unemployed Americans includes many immature and untrained youths, unmotivated adults on government aid programs, plus marginalized Americans, such as inner-city youths and unemployed drug users who are the customers of the Mexican drug cartels.Â

There are two sides to every story and every issue. However, we can’t see anything but good coming from labor and economic policies that force American workers and American companies to refer first to domestic labor. Hopefully Trump’s policies will help encourage better labor force preparation and participation by American workers if they are implemented in conjunction with a reduction in Left-wing social policies that encourage Americans to shun work in lieu of dependence.

Sometimes you have to lead that horse to water andÂ make it drink — for its own good.